Jo Eisinger and Lorain B. Eisinger v. Commissiner of Internal Revenue

This is a timely- appeal or petition to review from a decision of the Tax Court. The original jurisdiction of the Tax Court (Int.Rev.Code of 1939, Section 272) and of this court on review (Int. Rev.Code of 1939, Section 1141(a) and Section 1142) is not in issue.

Jo and Lorain Eisinger, husband and wife, seek to deduct from their joint income tax returns for the years 1949 and 1950 the total payments made by Jo Eisinger to his former wife, Wilhelmina Eisinger, in accordance with the terms of a certain property settlement agreement, dated March 28, 1949 and amended April 28, 1949, incorporated into the terms of a decree of divorce, obtained in Florida on May 26, 1949, dissolving the marriage of Jo and Wilhelmina Eisinger. At the time of the divorce there were two children, the issue of said marriage, both minors.

Taxpayers deducted the sums of $3,-850 and $6,677, respectively, from their gross income for the two years. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue determined that of such sums, fifty per cent, or $1,925 and $3,364.50, respectively, represented payments for the support of the two minor children, and hence were not deductible.

Petitioners claimed the entire sums were…